1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 40 to 43, there has been proposed a connector including a plurality of conductive elastic bodies 700, an inner frame 800 which holds the plurality of conductive elastic bodies 700, and an outer frame 900 which holds the inner frame 800 in a movable manner (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2011-49142, (Paragraphs 0030, 0031, 0035, 0036, and 0039, FIGS. 1, 2, 5, and 7)). Note that FIGS. 40, 41, 42, and 43 correspond to FIGS. 1, 2, 5, and 7 in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2011-49142, respectively. However, reference numerals in the drawings are changed, and some of them are deleted.
As shown in FIG. 41, each conductive elastic body 700 includes an insulating elastic body 710, an insulating film 720 affixed to the elastic body 710, a plurality of conductors 730 formed on the insulating film 720, and a reinforcing member 740 embedded in the elastic body 710. Each conductor 730 includes a connection portion 734 extending in a direction Z, and two contact portions 732 located at opposite ends of the connection portion 734.
The inner frame 800 is made of resin. The inner frame 800 is formed into a substantially plate-like shape. As shown in FIG. 42, the inner frame 800 is formed with a plurality of slits 830.
As shown in FIG. 42, the inner frame 800 includes a main part 810 having a substantially rectangular frame shape. In an area surrounded by the main part 810, there are arranged a plurality of partition walls 832 each extending in a direction X and a plurality of partition walls 833 each extending in a direction Y orthogonal to the direction X. The main part 810, the plurality of partition walls 832, and the plurality of partition walls 833 are integrally molded of resin. The plurality of partition walls 832 are arranged at equally-spaced intervals in the direction Y, and the plurality of partition walls 833 are arranged at equally-spaced intervals in the direction X. Spaces formed by the partition walls 832 and 833 are the slits 830. The conductive elastic bodies 700 are inserted in the slits 830 and are supported by the partition walls 832.
The outer frame 900 is made of resin. As shown in FIG. 40, the outer frame 900 is formed into a substantially rectangular frame-like shape. The outer frame 900 and the inner frame 800 are assembled as shown in FIG. 43.
When using the connector described above, the connector is sandwiched between two objects to be connected (not shown), whereby the elastic body 710 of each conductive elastic body 700 is elastically deformed, and respective one contact portions 732 of the conductors 730 of each conductive elastic body 700 are brought into contact with terminal portions (not shown) formed on one of the objects to be connected, and the respective other contact portions 732 of the conductors 730 of the conductive elastic body 700 are brought into contact with terminal portions (not shown) formed on the other of the objects to be connected. As a result, the two objects to be connected are electrically connected.
To realize a narrower pitch of the conductive elastic bodies 700 of the above-described connector, it is only necessary to reduce the thickness of each of the partition walls 832 and 833.
However, the main part 810, the plurality of the partition walls 832, and the plurality of the partition walls 833 are integrally molded of resin, and hence if the partition walls 832 and 833 are reduced in thickness, this makes it difficult to perform resin molding, and even if the main part 810 and the partition walls 832 and 833 can be molded of resin with high accuracy, the strength of each of the partition walls 832 and 833 is reduced. As a consequence, when the conductive elastic bodies 700 are deformed during use of the connector, an amount of deformation of each of the partition walls 832 and 833 is increased, so that the contact portions 732 of the conductors 730 of each conductive elastic body 700 are displaced with respect to respective associated ones of the terminal portions of each of the objects to be connected, which lowers the contact reliability.